The river Eo marks the natural frontier of a controversy that is more political than linguistic. The Galician claims protection in Asturias and does not like it in Oviedo. “The proposal is somewhat daring. Each one in his place”, defend some Asturians with whom laSexta has spoken. But the request has an explanation: to the west of Asturias, between the Ro and Navia rivers, a variety of languages are spoken in which the name itself is in conflict.
Now it is called Eonaviego, but traditionally it was known as Galician-Asturian. And on the street, many call it fala. “Let’s not focus only on the name and defend the history that we have behind what we ‘fail'”, highlighted the mayor of Vegadeo, César Alcarez. An example: if in Spanish you say ‘brother’, in Galician you say ‘irmán’, in Eonaviego ‘ermao’ and in Asturian ‘hermanu’.
In the street, the neighbors insist: “He is not Asturian, he is not Galician, nor is he Castilian.” The poet Dámaso Alonso described it as a mixture of the languages that surround him, like “a rainbow between two immediate colors.” Thus, there are small variations that do not promote an identity twinning. The principality intends to reform its statute of autonomy and protect the Asturian.
For its part, the Galician academy requests the same protection for this language that they consider a variation of Galician. “Remember that there is a Galician-speaking minority in western Asturias, that they have their rights and that they should be recognized,” argued Enrique Monteagudo, deputy secretary of the Royal Galician Academy. The historian Antonio Álvarez does not see it that way: “It is a colonialist and unpresentable attitude.”
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